Abstract
A hardware and software environment with performance above 1 Teraflops (teracomputing) is presently required to face the leading computational challenges not only in fundamental sciences, but also in an increasing number of fields related to applied sciences and engineering. A short survey of the top level computing platforms is made, with a special attention to United States and Japan. The technology options adopted for teracomputing are evaluated. In this perspective, a European line of supercomputers is described, which was originated by the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics and is now in use also in Germany and France: this line of massively parallel platforms is based on the use of CMOS VLSI custom chips, carefully designed to match the computing needs, so that only the silicon strictly necessary to the operations to be performed is used.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Cabibbo N., Mathis A.: “Whatever happened to Europe’s high performance computing?”. Physics World, January 1995.
Griffith V.: “Pharmaceutical supercomputers—Mighty dose of power”. Financial Times, May 21, 1997.
Taubes G.: “Redefining the Supercomputer”. Science, Vol.273, 20 September 1996.
Markoff J.: “A Tug-of-War for Elite Supercomputers”. International Herald Tribune, March 24, 1998.
Messina P.: “High-Performance Computers: The Next Generation (Part I)”. Computers in Physics, Vol 11, No.5, Sep./Oct. 1997.
Messina P.: “High-Performance Computers: The Next Generation (Part II)”. Computers in Physics, Vol 11, No.6, Nov./Dec. 1997.
SIA (Semiconductors Industry Association): “The National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors”. 1997 Edition, published by SEMATECH, Inc.
Bilardi G., Preparata F. P.: “Horizons of Parallel Computation”, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing 27 (1995) 172–182.
Makino J.: “Supercomputing Symposium Addresses Astrophysics and Related Topics”. Computers in Physics, Vol 11, No.6, Nov./Dec. 1997.
Maiani L.: “APEmille verso il traguardo”. Le Scienze, numero 343, marzo 1997.
Schilling K.: “TERAcomputing in Europa: Quo Vamus?”. Phys. Bl. 53 (1997) Nr. 10.
Mathis A.: “High Performance Computing: European Efforts”. The IPTS Report, Issue 06, 1996 (European Commission—Joint Research Center).
Mathis A.: “How to use HPCN for Creating New Industries”. RCI’s European Member Management Symposium IX, Noordoostpolder, The Netherlands, 5-6-7 June 1996.
Vanneschi M.: “Variable grain architectures for MPP computation and structured parallel programming”. Programming Models for Massively Parallel Computers, IEEE Press, March 1998.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mathis, A. (1998). Technologies for teracomputing: A European option. In: Kågström, B., Dongarra, J., Elmroth, E., Waśniewski, J. (eds) Applied Parallel Computing Large Scale Scientific and Industrial Problems. PARA 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1541. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0095355
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0095355
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65414-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49261-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive